Men were dressed in leotards, wigs, and gold-sequined skirts, swilling alcohol and laughing at jokes about gay people. It sounds like the sort of scene that, if captured on tape, might get a fraternity kicked off a campus. But it was actually an induction ceremony for a secret society of high-powered financiers, whose members include a prominent University of Richmond trustee.
Paul B. Queally, a board member at Richmond, is in hot water over a recent New York magazine article that features a recording of Mr. Queally telling what some have called homophobic and sexist jokes. The tape was recorded clandestinely by a reporter at a 2012 meeting of Kappa Beta Phi, an underground fraternity for the Wall Street elite.
The release of the tape and accompanying article, “One-Percent Jokes and Plutocrats in Drag: What I Saw When I Crashed a Wall Street Secret Society,” presents a real dilemma for the University of Richmond, a private liberal-arts institution that bills itself as a tolerant and open environment for gay and lesbian students and faculty and staff members. (The article was adapted from Kevin Roose’s new book, Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street’s Post-Crash Recruits [Grand Central Publishing, 2014].)
Mr. Queally, a private-equity executive, and his wife are among the university’s most generous financial supporters. They have given the institution nearly $20-million, and they have been honored in turn. A 33,000-square-foot addition to the Robins School of Business building bears the family’s name, as will a new admissions center.
During his recorded speech at the fraternity event, Mr. Queally made jokes at the expense of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of state, and Barney Frank, the former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts who is one of the nation’s most prominent gay political figures. The joke about Mr. Frank, which involved a phallic allusion to hot dogs, played on Mr. Frank’s sexual orientation.
In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Frank questioned whether it was appropriate for Mr. Queally to serve on Richmond’s board.
“I’ve never heard of the guy, and he does not sound like somebody I miss not knowing,” Mr. Frank said.
“He certainly doesn’t sound like the kind of person I’d want to have running a university,” he added. “On the other hand, a bigot is a bigot, no matter what his job is.”
‘In the Spirit of the Event’
Mr. Queally did not respond to an interview request on Thursday, but he released a statement that has appeared in numerous news articles.
“My brief remarks were in the spirit of the event, but they do not reflect my views or my values,” he said. “On reflection I should have said nothing. I understand that people who do not know me or my work may misinterpret what I said. I believe my record in support of education, diversity, and economic advancement defines who I am and what I stand for.”
Richmond’s board rector and president have also issued statements espousing their commitments to diversity. What none of them, including Mr. Queally, seem to have done publicly, though, is to condemn the remarks or to overtly apologize for them. That did not sit well with Mr. Frank.
“If they were serious about those sentiments in those statements, they would have expressed their sharp disagreement,” Mr. Frank said.
Some Richmond students have also been left wanting by the university’s official statements thus far. Yaz M. Nunez, an officer with a campus organization for gay and lesbian students, said Mr. Queally’s statements were particularly unsatisfying: “He says he doesn’t believe the things he said. That’s because he got caught.”
Wesley J. Meredith, who is also an officer of the group, the Student Alliance for Sexual Diversity, said that he was concerned about whether Mr. Queally could genuinely identify with the needs of a diverse student body, given his wealth and the company he appears to keep in a secret society of Wall Street tycoons.
“He’s the money-bags guy from Monopoly, essentially,” Mr. Meredith said.
A Second Controversy
Questions about Mr. Queally’s sensitivity to gay and lesbian issues surfaced again this week, when the university’s student newspaper uncovered a comment the trustee had made in a Facebook photo caption. Under a picture of a man in a leaf-print garment, Mr. Queally wrote, “Petey in his fag jacket,” The Collegian reported.
Mr. Queally was compelled to issue a second statement when contacted by the student newspaper.
“The lesson I learned is that there is no situation or context, public or private, where it is appropriate to make an ill-considered remark in an unwise attempt at being humorous,” he said. “In today’s world there is no place for any remark under any circumstance that implies a lack of tolerance. It is my life’s work in education and support for diversity which defines who I am and what I believe. Those who know me understand this.”
Despite an outcry from students and alumni, the university has given no indication that Mr. Queally’s position as a trustee is in jeopardy. The board’s bylaws, however, state that a majority of trustees can remove a member for any action “that may negatively reflect on the university.”
Jeffrey B. Trammell, a board member of the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities, said that trustees should not make knee-jerk decisions about dismissing a member.
“You don’t just say, My board member made a really offensive, stupid joke about women, and therefore we’re going to kick him off the board,” said Mr. Trammell, a former rector of the College of William & Mary’s board. “That’s not the proper way to handle it. The proper way is to look at the totality of the individual.”
Mr. Trammell, who describes himself as Virginia’s first openly gay college trustee, found Mr. Queally’s remarks “highly inappropriate.” At the same time, he said, board members are entitled to free speech.
“A university does not have the job of policing the words of trustees,” Mr. Trammell said.
Edward L. Ayers, president of the University of Richmond and a member of its board, did not respond to an interview request on Thursday. In his only public statement, he told The Collegian that “the board wholeheartedly shares our values and understands the special responsibility trustees have for exemplifying the principles that are so central to our mission.”
Mr. Ayers, a prominent scholar of the Civil War, has been outspoken on civil-rights issues. As the president of a college situated in the former capital of the Confederacy, he has criticized Richmond’s tendency to gloss over the brutal history of slavery. On the issue at hand, though, Mr. Ayers has said little.
